In an attempt to solve the problems of traditional smoking, electronic cigarettes and vaporizers have come to the forefront. These devices employ the use of a liquid, concentrate, or dry material inhalants that often comprise glycol ad-mixtures, wax-like substances, herbs, flowers, and other medicinal substances. In the conventional art, the inhalant is placed on or otherwise drawn to and over a metal heating element, such as a metal coil, which coil receives electrical energy from an on-board battery. The electrical energy is converted to heat, thereby heating and vaporizing the inhalant material brought in contact with the heating element. The resultant vapor, smoke, or other aerosol is then inhaled by way of a mouthpiece in fluid communication with an air channel disposed through the device.
It is often difficult or simply inconvenient to load a heating chamber of an electronic smoking device with the inhalant material. For example, in some known concentrate and/or dry material heating chambers, the inhalant material has to be manually inserted and/or manually placed onto the heating coils inside the chamber (sometimes known as “dabbing” or “dripping”). These chambers are small and present tight quarters that are difficult or impossible to access for cleaning and can gum up to ill effect. As a result of gumming up, the user often has to scrape or otherwise disturb the inside surfaces of the electronic smoking device to remove spent material and insert new material.
The performance degradation and convenience issues of known vaporizer systems need to be addressed in order to provide a reliable more user-friendly system. The Applicant herein provided a solution to these and other problems as set forth in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/832,582, filed Dec. 5, 2017, incorporated herein by reference, which described, among other things, a foil-sealed cup-like container with a closed bottom that is pre-filled or can be filled with inhalant material of any type. The cup device described in Applicant's previous filings offers convenience in delivery of inhalant material and also addressed safety concerns by preventing direct contact between an exposed coil and the inhalant material.
Recognizing that some users prefer the performance characteristics of at least some direct contact between the inhalant material and the heating element (coils), but disfavor the inconvenience of manual “dabbing” or scrapping techniques, the present invention contemplates various embodiments of an open-ended inhalant material container. Accordingly, the present invention is directed at enhancing the convenience, durability, and performance of vaporizer system components.
It will be recognized that some or all of the Figures are schematic representations for purposes of illustration and do not necessarily depict the actual relative sizes or locations of the elements shown. The Figures are provided for the purpose of illustrating one or more embodiments of the invention with the explicit understanding that they will not be used to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.